With a name like Fannie Flagg, you might have guessed this novelist has a distinctive writing style. This is love-it-or-hate-it stuff: the lilting drawl of small-town America. As the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, there is one thing Flagg is not afraid of: good, old-fashioned sentimentality.

You could argue that her writing should come with a health warning: readers of a cynical disposition should stay away. Her American fans have no such doubts: this novel was hailed as her funniest ever, as 'refreshing as iced tea on a summer day'. But there is, thankfully, an edge to Flagg's humour: her characters are corny, but they are often so innocent that they say the most hilarious, politically-incorrect things; the things we all say when we think no one is listening.

I have no idea whether places such as Elmwood Springs, Missouri, really exist. But it doesn't matter because I would like them to. Flagg conjures up a modern America that has hardly moved on from the Fifties, whimsical and self-parodying. The home town of Flagg's latest heroine, octogenarian Elner Shimfissle, barely seems contemporary. This is the sort of place where everyone looks out for everyone else and nobody minds their own business. People notice things: who's ill, who needs help around the house, whose marriage is in trouble.

The action unfolds over the 24 hours after Elner has a fall from a fig tree, incurs multiple wasp stings and ends up in an ambulance. It would seem that her injuries are fatal - or are they? As Flagg tampers with her heroine's mortality, everyone around behaves as if Elner has indeed died, calling the undertakers to order 'the usual' flowers (Elmwood Springs has seen a lot of funerals) and tidying up Elner's house before her neurotic niece Norma gets back from the hospital. This favour turns up the novel's mystery: a gun at the bottom of a laundry basket. Why would Elner own a gun?

The book describes itself as 'comedy-mystery', but the plot is not as overtly cinematic as Fried Green Tomatoes: dialogue and witty asides are the focus. Much of the novel is taken up with remembrances of Elner's life - and she is one hell of a lady. She has spent most of her retirement pondering the meaning of life and whether God exists. A typical conclusion: 'I still think there's a chance that Eve came first and the men who wrote the Bible changed it around at the last minute so they could be first.' There are aphorisms galore, many so good they make you snort out loud.